Defense - China: US warship enters Chinese waters
China has complained about the "illegal" intrusion of a US warship into areas claimed by the People's Republic in the South China Sea.
The "USS Gabrielle Giffords" had approached Ren'ai Reef, also known as Second Thomas Shoal, without permission, a spokesman for the People's Liberation Army said. The US had thus violated China's security and sovereignty and disrupted stability in the region. The US Navy did not initially respond to a request for comment.
There has been a dispute between Beijing and the Philippine government for decades over the area of widely scattered reefs and islands west of the Philippines and far south of China. The countries' patrolling coast guards regularly conduct dangerous maneuvers there.
The armed forces of the USA, an ally of the Philippines, and China also accuse each other of dangerous behavior in the region. An old warship from the Second World War on one of the reefs, which the Philippines ran aground there in 1997 as an outpost to secure its sovereignty, is a recurring theme. The Philippines accuse China of obstructing supplies for the "Sierra Madre", which is in need of repair.
Beijing regularly criticizes the passage of US warships through the strait between Taiwan and China or in the South China Sea. Following the meeting between US President Joe Biden and China's head of state and party leader Xi Jinping in mid-November, there was hope for a rapprochement between the two superpowers. On Friday, the spokesman for China's Ministry of Defense said that he would talk to the US military again about establishing an exchange that had been dormant for some time.
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Source: www.stern.de
